The Giants Baseball Blog

Three trends continued in Wednesday's loss to the Padres. The first is a trend that should prove to all Giants fans that still have hope, that this year just ain't the year. After an inspiring series vs. the Yankees in which the Giants took the last two and looked like a solid team in doing so, they roll over and lay an egg vs. San Diego. If there was ever a time to put together a nice little winning steak, that was the time. They had a chance to win all 3 vs. San Diego and they were at home, but they just couldn't get the job done. If they take those 3 vs. San Diego, then roll into Arizona on a nice 5 game winning streak and 2 series victories in a row vs. quality teams, then you start to look at things a little differently. But they didn't and they won't go on any big winning streaks at all for the rest of the season. Even with the quality starting pitching, the inconsistent and creaky lineup is getting more tired and inconsistent as the season wears on, and they ...

The Giants moved back within 10 games of .500 after they took the last two vs. the Yankees at AT&T Park. It was actually the most exciting baseball I've seen the Giants play in over a month. I think having the Yankees in town lit a little bit of a fire under the Giants' and the old legs and bats showed a little bit of life over the weekend. I am also getting more impressed by Nate Schierholtz the more I watch him. Not only did he win a game with a base hit on Saturday, but he came up with a crucial sac fly, behind in the count vs. Roger Clemens, a spot where many Giants have failed all to often this season. Schierholtz hasn't shown much power at all since his promotion, but he puts the ball in play a lot, and his batting average is showing it. The exciting thing about Schierholtz is that he seems to be more polished with the bat at the big league level than Ortmeier and Lewis, and he's 3 years younger. I think his power will come with time, but the thing I like abou...

With the official halfway point in the Major League Baseball season right around the corner, and the all-star game approaching, here is my opinion on how the 30-man all-star rosters should fill out: American League: Starting Lineup: CF Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle) SS Carlos Guillen (Detroit) 3B Alex Rodriguez (New York) LF Magglio Ordonez (Detroit) RF Vladimer Guerrero (LA Angels) 1B Justin Morneau ( Minnesota ) C Victor Martinez (Cleveland) 2B B.J. Upton (Tampa Bay) SP Dan Haren (Oakland) Bench : OF Grady Sizemore (Cleveland) DH-OF Gary Sheffield (Detroit) OF Torii Hunter ( Minnesota ) DH-1B David Ortiz (Boston) SS Derek Jeter (New York) IF Brian Roberts (Baltimore) IF Mark Teahan * (Kansas City) C Jorge Posada (New York) IF Mike Lowell (Boston) OF Alex Rios (Toronto) IF Ian Kinsler * (Texas) Pitchers: SP Johan Santana ( Minnesota ) SP Josh Beckett (Boston) SP C.C. Sabathia (Cleveland) SP Kelvim Escobar (LA Angels) SP Justin Verlander (Detroit) SP John Lackey (LA Angels) RP...

Tuesday's loss marked the 6 th in a row for the Giants, and their June fell to a pathetic 5-13. Things have gotten so bad that the Giants are not only 12 games out of first place, they are trailing the Rockies by 6 games and are in the NL West cellar. Say what you want about the average age of this team and yes they have one of the worst bullpens in the NL , but based on their starting pitching alone, this team is underachieving. Coming into this season, I, like a lot of people, expected the Giants to be a team that would hover around the .500 mark for most of the year. I thought that maybe in the open NL West, and NL in general, they would be in position at the deadline to possibly add a bat and a reliever to make a push for a playoff spot. I knew there were holes in this team, but I didn't think that they were this blatant. The fact is, the Giants are and will continue to be the team you are currently watching. I hate to say it, but there isn't going to be a turnarou...

After the Giants got shut out for the third time in a week on Saturday, Matt Cain's record fell to 2-7. In April, If you would have told me that Matt Cain would be 2-7, while sporting a 3.15 era through June, I would have said you were crazy. But here we are, June 16 and Cain is looking like the best 2-7 pitcher I've ever seen. Cain has gotten back on track over his last couple of starts. He's cut back on his walks and his pitch count has been helped because of it. I can't recall exactly how many times Cain has lost a game due to lack of run support or because of the bullpen blowing it, but there have been far to many. The bats seem like they're already tired, and were barely halfway through June. The only players who are performing at or above league average at their respective positions are Bengie Molina, Barry Bonds and Randy Winn. Both Molina and Winn have cooled off a little after tearing it up during the month of May and Bonds just seems like he hasn't be...

Tim Lincecum turned in his 3rd straight sub-par outing on Wednesday, a game in which the Giants had a chance to sweep a series, something they haven't done in about a month. Lincecum's lack of control continues to be his downfall. His stuff is amazing, but he's consistently getting himself behind in counts and putting himself in situations where he has to give in to hitters. Wednesday's start was his worst start of the season, even worse than his debut outing vs. the Mets, and it was the second time in a row Lincecum failed to complete five innings. His recent struggles have raised the question to some as to whether it's time to start thinking about Lincecum in the closing role? My feelings on that... No Way. You can't decide to alter a guy with this much potential because he's had a few bad outings early in his rookie season. We all know young pitchers go through ups and downs in early on, and even guys praised as highly as Lincecum are not always going to ...

The Giants have plummeted to a season low 6 games below .500, and the same problems they've had all year continue to hurt them. I thought today would be a good day to continue focusing on the draft. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to interview Brian Foley, a college baseball enthusiast who does a terrific job covering NCAA hardball action at http://www.collegebaseball.blogspot.com . SFGBLOG : What are your thoughts on Madison Bumgarner ? Was he worthy of a top 10 pick in your opinion? BF: I personally don't like to see High School kids especially left- handers drafted in the first round of the draft but based on the reports I have read about Madison he is well worth the selection. He is a big left handed pitcher who has some good weight behind him since he weighs 220 already. It is very rare to see a pitcher this big coming out of high school which is a plus. The Giants do have to work with him in the minor leagues in developing some breaking pitchers as he has...

Sticking to their same formula they have kept over the past 5 years, the Giants targeted pitching with their first pick in the 2007 major league baseball amateur draft. With the Giants lacking position playing talent in their system, the general thought was that the team would try and re-stock their positional talent this draft, but they took two pitchers right off the bat and let one of the draft's more intriguing bat's pass through. I was not an expert on this draft, but have studied projected first round picks over the last week or so. What was considered a high-school rich draft, it shouldn't be too surprising to see that all 3 of the teams' first round picks were taken out of high school. Here is my breakdown of the Giants top 3 picks of the draft: 1. LHP Madison Bumgarner (10 th overall): After watching scouting videos on this guy, it's easy to see why the Giants made him worthy of the number 10 pick. He has a smooth, easy delivery that somehow slings the...

The Giants bullpen once again has to take the blame for the teams' loses in Philadelphia and Arizona. Armando Benitez is gone, but it seems like the Giants are giving up more games late than they did with him here. I have been a supporter of Kevin Corriea all year, and I have posted numerous times that I think he is the toughest Giants' reliever to hit, when he's on. I still think Corriea has good stuff and I still think he is one of the better relievers on this staff (not saying much) but this guy has blown a lot of games, whether they've been his fault or not. However, You can't really put all the blame on Corriea , even though it's the popular thing to do. The ball Shane Victorino hit out of the park on Saturday wouldn't have even made it to the warning track in San Francisco. And sure, on paper it looks like Corriea is the gofer for Saturday's game, but it was Jack Taschner that gave up the game changing, 3-run home to Ryan Howard on a 1-2 fas...

The Giants opened their weekend series in Philadelphia with a bang, scoring 13 runs against the Phillies while getting another dominant performance from Matt Morris. This all came fresh off of a tough series in New York, and right after the team traded the enigma that is Armando Benitez . The popular theory around the bay area sports radio stations and among the media was that the problem had been removed from the team, so the team would and should play better. I can see how not having Benitez around could ease some of the tension in the clubhouse and it saves the Giants fans the agony of watching him pitch for this team any longer. However, the fact that Benitez is no longer on the team does not change the fact that this lineup is still very old and unproductive. It doesn't change the fact that the rest of the bullpen, outside Brad Hennessey and occasionally Kevin Corriea , is so poor, that any reasonable lead late in a ballgame is never safe, no matter who it's against ...